Access and Allies: European Center-Right Parties and the Collective Development of Campaign Management in the 1980s

Abstract

The article provides a detailed analysis of previously unresearched campaign management seminars for European Center-Right political parties within the European Democrat Union (EDU) in the 1980s. Original archival material shows how these seminars in several ways facilitated the spread of campaign techniques originating in the United States: (1) through the collective discussion and adaptation of U.S. innovations to a European context and (2) as a catalyst for bilateral relationships between otherwise unlikely partners. Members from small countries gained access to global leaders of campaign development in the shape of operatives from the U.K. Conservative Party, the German CDU, and the U.S. Republican Party. The campaign seminar group depended on the will of EDU members from these powerful countries to build and maintain a transnational organization within the frameworks of the cold war and European integration. In conclusion, the article argues that mediating instances such as the campaign seminars should be integrated in explanatory concepts such as “modernization” and “Americanization,” as should historical context.